Gathered Pullover: Progress is being made

   These have been some busy weeks around here, what with Spring and all.  Now that the weather is nice, all of the outdoor chores that were neglected during the winter are demanding to be done (right now!).  I work and work and work, yet the list just keeps getting longer!  It's a race to get everything done before it becomes unbearably hot here.  It's actually the same exact time each year; exactly one week before I finish.  So I end up with heatstroke and a sunburn from standing on the garage roof, painting the trim in 110 degree weather.  Good times.

I will write up a post about the more fun/interesting house projects soon.  Like my garden!  [Side Note: It has 1 brandywine tomato plant in it.  I bought it from the nursery.  All of my seedlings died.  No big surprise here.  I just wish I knew WHY!  They never made it past the 'first two leaves' stage.  I avoided fungal rot at the base of the plants this year though.  That's progress!]

My gathered pullover has an entire body, eagerly awaiting sleeves.  The fabric is lightweight and has enough drape along with really defined stitches.  I think the larger needles (US 7) really help this pattern live up to its potential. 

Here's a close-up view of the ribbed, cabled, gathered area on the front of the sweater.  It's like an island of intricacy sitting in a sea of stockinette.  It was a very welcome change after nearly a foot of knitting a straight tube!

Alas, I don't think I'll finish this in time to wear it this spring.  We've already had a few 80 degree days.  There's always the office though, kept at a crisp 68 degrees during the hotter months.  That sounds like light sweater weather to me.

I'm going to have to adjust my knitting calendar so that I'm a season ahead from now on.  Note to Self: Begin spring things immediately after Christmas.  Begin fall things in July.  Begin winter things by September.  That ought to do it.

Hey,What Ever Happened To ...

Remember those curtains I posted about a while ago? They didn't work out.

There were marks all over them that needed washing (I was willing to overlook this as long as they came clean). So, they went through a gentle wash cycle, on cold, as per their instructions, but the problem areas remained and they got a little Spray-N-Wash and OxyClean in the water. The marks were gone, but after letting them air dry and ironing them ... they shrank! So much that they no longer fit in the intended area. Unacceptable!

Grumble*lousy curtains*Grumble. So they got a one-way ticket back to the store for being defective, deceptive little buggars. I haven't found a replacement yet, so my desk area is still unusable at peak afternoon times. Sigh.

It isn't that I mind toting the laptop around or working while sitting, ok laying, on my bed. It's a little too comfortable though so I tend to do more "napping" than "working". There's also supposedly an associative problem that can crop up if you start to associate 'bed' with 'work' and it leads to insomnia. I wonder if they've studied the reverse effect of associating 'work' with 'naptime' and discovered a well-rested, though underachieving population. ;-)

Growing

These are my tiny tomato plant seedlings! The reaction I had when these little guys sprouted up over night was akin to the reaction Tom Hanks' character in Castaway had when he finally made fire. "I have made plants, from tiny lifeless seeds in a packet. I have made plants!" As you can tell, I am not much of a green thumb. Truth be told, I've never planted anything and had it live. (Herbology, D for Dreadful, sigh.) We'll see how this goes, but I'm looking forward to some heirloom Brandywine tomatoes circa 1885.

This is my Gathered Pullover. The color is a bit off, but trust me, it's a light blue with hints of purple-e-ness. Yup. 6" of knitted tube. Ok, moving on ...

[Side Note: My nifty new Options circular needle, via knitpicks, is having a problem. The one side won't tighten up. It's doing it on both ends, and on another cable as well. I called knitpicks to see if I might be doing something wrong and they are sending me new interchangeable heads! Now that's customer service! Meanwhile, my knitting sort of catches in that space, which is cumbersome and also rather annoying, so that sweater is in timeout until the new needles arrive.]

Here we have my bubble wrap. It's actually called the Soap Bubble Wrap, but bubble wrap sounds more fun to me. Bubble wrap also = entertainment, who knew? Try the Manic Mode, you'll be glad you did.

"UFO's of 2008" or "It Came From The BIN OF UNFINISHED KNITS"

Cotton I-cord dish drain-board mat thing

• I finally picked up some embroidery floss to finish this!
• There's still cord to be made.  Probably half a ball left.
• I don't know, but I might need another ball's worth of cord to make the mat wide enough.
• Now, how to sew this together?  Hmm.

Quidditch/Rugby Sweater

• There are no sleeves, only yarn cakes waiting patiently.
• I really want this sweater, so I don't know what the hold-up is.

The Never-Ending Afghan

• The name really is self-explanatory.

Noro Scarf

• It's a beautiful product with really enjoyable yarn.
• I'm not dragging my feet (needles?), I'm just, uh, "savoring the experience".  Yeah, that's it.
• I like it so much, in fact, that I've knit the same 6" half a dozen times now, trying for perfection.

Broad-Street Mitts ... OF DOOM!

• Well, these were an unmitigated disaster and will require frogging, ripping, or maybe just a good ol' burning.  Ugh.
• When knitty says "extra spicy" boy do they mean it.
• I still need gloves.  My hands are so cold on the way in to work.  What a pathetic situation for a knitter!

Draco Socks

• This project lives in my work-bag and gets a few rows every now and again.
• Also, it's rather difficult to take a picture in a bag.  Just in case you were wondering.

I kind of thought there were more than this, so it's relieving to see an end in sight for some of these projects.  [Side Note: Except for the Never-Ending Afghan, which will never end.  I'm pretty sure that something cataclysmic would happen to the fabric of space and time if I ever cast-off.  Because I have that sort of power apparently.  In all seriousness though, there are only 8 more BIG yarn cakes to go.]

Tomorrow, I seam

I (finally) finished the second sleeve of the Wee Wizard robe. Tomorrow I'm going to seam everything up and have myself a finished object, yay! A little 'blocking' and weaving of ends and I'll add some much needed final measurements to the pattern.

I wonder if it bothers people when I update the pattern, just for aesthetics reasons. There aren't dire changes like "oops, I forgot to tell you to do something vitally important" but when I noticed that the indents were wrong, I fixed it. And when I had some finished measurements, I added them. I hope I'm not aggravating people. I'll just do one final update with all of the pictures, pretty text boxes, and other fancy inclusions and call it the Rich Format, and re-name the original "Plain Text". That way people can look at the fancy one, but print the simple one and save ink. There, justification :-D

Test knitting on a wee scale

The prototype Wee Wizard Wrobe is zipping along. All I have left to knit is about half of the second sleeve. I'll probably finish it tonight during Trueblood. [Edit: Nope, did not finish it.]
[Side Note: I had no intention of adding another show to my TV viewing schedule. I'm two weeks behind on my DVR. But it reminds me of some of my best college friends. I'm sentimental about a sexually violent vampire show? Great.]
I did all of the seaming on Saturday in the daylight (see The Great Seam-As-I-Go Edict) because it is very difficult to see anything on black yarn. I guess that's a blessing too because I can't see any mistakes either :-) The neck area seems like it might be a little tight, based on the head of a Brand Name Patch doll (whose name is Charlie, very creative of those Patch people huh). I'll have to give it a little stretching when I "block" it. I know it's acrylic, but the preliminary blocking I did on the hood helped the stitches even themselves out and made everything lie flatter.

Speaking of the college friends, I'm eagerly anticipating homecoming in a few weeks here! Let's hope that all of this stomach virus plague nonsense dies down at USC before I get there. The hazmat suit just takes up too much room in my suitcase.

[Side Rant: USC did NOT run up the score against Washington. Mark Sanchez left at the half. There weren't ANY forward passes thrown after the half. We ran the ball using only 2 plays the rest of the game (left and right). Every Tom, Dick, and RUDY made it into the game. And yet, if the end-zone had been moved up to the 50 yard line, Washington still wouldn't have scored.
What more could we do? Play blindfolded? Take a knee? I think that would have been insulting. I'm finished now.]

Also, I'm still looking for an interesting pattern that will allow me to combine the Tonks and Lupin skeins of HP Opal in an 'individual and autonomous, yet matchy-matchy' sort of way. I'm open to suggestions!

Putting all my yarn in one basket

Normally that would be a bad thing (Ex. the eggs-in-one-basket metaphor), but this was a productive type of cleaning that prevents such tragedies as Yarn Loss.

[Side Note: Eggs in baskets? Ok. My eggs have always come in cartons. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a real live chicken in person before. I am a city girl. Which is a little ironic because I really really enjoy the outdoors and LOVE Man vs. Wild type stuff. Yet, I've never been camping. My parents weren't big on that sort of stuff. They worked hard to put a roof over our heads and food in the kitchen (and braces on our teeth) and probably didn't seen any reason to pack it all up, schlep it up into the wilderness, and 'rough it'. Plus, I had a very poor sense of direction and a tendency to wander, right from the beginning. It's ok, we enjoyed other outside activities, like parks, beaches, and our yard.]

My, that was a lengthy bracket. Where was I ... oh yes, I got all the yarn together and in a basket. I looks like I had more than I thought, since it filled a rather large basket all the way up to the top. The 8 skeins of HP Opal really fleshed it out too.

Speaking of the HP yarn, it's making me a little (more?) crazy as I try to figure out what the designer (yarn painter?) had in mind. I'm looking for their motives and inspiration. Yup, crazy. But the Lupin yarn has sections of greys (his werewolf-ness) and sections with red and gold alternating bits (his Gryffindor-ness) and pink (for Tonks!) . See how nicely it fits! What I can't understand is why the Draco yarn is just shades of blue and grey. It looks almost like denim. I'm not one to criticize someone else's artistic vision, but I need some green! There should be a nice slytherin-y green. Just saying. Grün Opal, grün!

I should take some WIP pictures. I'm making some Draco footie socks (with a surprise!) and a great big coil of white cotton i-cord that will become a drain-board mat thingy for by the sink. I just ripped back my Lupin/Tonks Scarf too. It wasn't turning out the way I wanted, just alternating the colors when I felt like it. There was no autonomy between the two skeins. And besides, it looked like Crayons-in-a-blender. Not good. I'm going to have to ponder my options for a little while on this one. Excuse me while I ponder.

My Sophie Bag

Knitting round after round.
Loving the yarn for it's fluffiness + sturdiness.
Hoping it will felt. It is mostly merino after all, but I have my doubts.
Wondering just how long the handles/straps are going to need to be.
No sign of the camera yet. I may have to resort to using my phone again. Sigh.
That is all.

Grr.

Well, so much for a WIP weekend. I ran out of the yellow "Butternut" color for my Rugby/Quidditch sweater midway up the second sleeve. I probably won't have enough of the red "cranberry" either though, so now I've got to track down my dye lot. Groan. Let's hope Webs can help me! [Side Note: I don't know how I ran out of yarn though. I ordered what the pattern told me to. I'm consistently getting gauge. Why must the knitting gods smite me so? Why!?]

Also, I've discovered that the crochet gods might be trying to tell me something too. But since it involved stepping on a crochet hook, I don't think it's anything nice or constructive. It didn't go through the skin or anything, but I have a G-hook sized bruise now. Must tidy up room.

P.S. I will report on my Experiment in Yarn soon, but not in this post because it's late and I haven't taken pictures.

An experiment in yarn

After last weekend's frantic knit-sprint to the finish of the ravelympics I'm in the mood for some WIP work this weekend. I really need to churn out the second sleeve for my Quidditch/Rugby sweater before I forget what I did with the first one. It helps that I wrote down everything from the first sleeve, but only in a such a way that I'm left puzzling a tally on a post-it and wondering why I thought this would be helpful. Sigh.

Now for the good news: my LYS [Side Note: Local Yarn Store, Gail Knits] is having a big sale this weekend and I'm ready for some experimentation. All the yarn in the sale bins is 50% off, so I think I'm going to take $20 and see what I can come up with. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things to tempt me too! However, for experiment purposes, I'm going to see just how far twenty bucks goes these days, literally. You know, in grams and yards. Expect a report on my findings :-)

There's no avoiding it any longer

I knew I was going to have to get back to it eventually. Yes, the monster afghan that will take an eternity to finish. I'm making it my downstairs/couch project and not starting other new things until it's done. Maybe.

It's the Embossed Diamonds pattern from Spin Dye Knit [Side Note: I probably mentioned this before, but it has been in hibernation so long that I've forgotten.] Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the finished product, it's just the dimensions that are getting to me. Perhaps making it, oh, twice as wide as the pattern called for was overly ambitions. Perhaps.

It's going to be close

I haven't been watching the real Olympics very much at all. I don't feel like I'm missing much since I don't know the rules for, well, any of the obscure sports. Which is all of them. Of course, I watched Mr. Phelps in his quest for Epic Hero status, but nothing else really caught my eye. [Side Note: I was watching water polo for a good 20 minutes. Until I realized that I was only watching the players (and all their muscles). I felt a bit shallow so I turned it off. Ditto for men's beach volleyball.]
Anyway, I have been dutifully plugging away on my Scarf Stroke project for the Ravelympics and I think I might end up being that French guy who missed the gold medal by 00.0000000000034 seconds.
I suppose that I can just bind off wherever I am when time is up and call it a scarf, but that's not the point of the games. I'll just have to ramp it up at the end here and hope for the best.
I love the scarf so far, pattern, yarn, width and all. It's really light but very warm and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of it if it doesn't become a gift instead. Also, it is in dire need of some quality blocking time and doesn't really look all wonky and strange in person.

A Scarf With Cables and Bobbles Too

Well, I tried the "permission" thing first because I was sampling from another knit pattern, but I haven't gotten a response. I believe that I have changed the pattern/chart enough from the original that a) you probably won't know what it was before and b) there's no way you could reverse engineer what it was before from what I've created.

So I'm sharing the chart from the Ravelympics project that I took on, but I'm not going to say which pattern it mimics (just in case). Please click on the image to make it bigger!
Notes:

• The four stitches on either end of the pattern are all knit stitches, i.e. the garter stitch border.
• I used six rows of garter stitch to begin (and end) the scarf.
• My bobble construction method was:
  
• K, P, K into bobble stitch; turn
• P row; turn
  
• K row; turn
• P row; turn
  
• pass 2nd and 3rd stitch over 1st stitch and knit into the back of the 1st stitch.
  
• Use as many repeats as you desire until you get to scarf-length.
• On size 6 (4 mm) needles with a slim DK weight yarn each pattern repeat ended up being 4".
• Also, you should probably have a cable needle at the ready for this project, unless you are superfancy and don't need one. In which case, nobody likes a show off.
  

Now, if you are the person who I tried to contact and you believe that I shouldn't be putting this chart on my blog you'll have to let me know! I respect your intellectual property and will pull it ASAP. And ask your forgiveness. [Side Note: In real life, I'm a firm believer that both permission and forgiveness are overrated. Bah, silly human social constructs. I try to avoid situations that involve either of these things. And moral turpitude. I try to avoid that too.]

Dark Knight = shorter days

We went to see the new batman movie in IMAX late late Saturday night. Originally we had planned to attend the 7 o'clock showing, but our customary half-hour-before-the-movie-starts arrival time was not enough to ensure our seats. I couldn't believe it! We had to go and get our tickets exchanged for the 10:30 showing which let out around 1-ish. The movie was worth the time and money spent, and if you get the chance to see it on an IMAX screen go for it!
The downside was that I slept the day away today. I'm done with the back of the Quidditch sweater though! And I started on one of the sleeves before we went to the movie.

I still haven't picked a pattern for my Ravelympics project (Scarf Stroke) yet. I wonder if it's possible to have knitters block. Only five days until the start. I had better get on this if I'm going to be a serious competitor :-) [Side Note: This is me psyching myself up.]

Bye Bye July!

Tuesday and Wednesday got away from me this week, bloggingly speaking. In other news a lot of knitting has been going on around here, as well as other home maintaining endeavors. [Side Note: Mom, if you're going to hit all of the sprinklers, please let me mow the lawn instead. Or put that bum I call a brother to work.]

I have been working away on my Quidditch sweater and I'm up to the armhole decreases on the back now. Yay! The stripes match up from the back to the front, which had me concerned. (By "concerned" I mean "I didn't think about that until I had already completed both stripes on the back part and the idea hit me like a lightning-bolt of panic.")

I decided to enter the scarf 'competition' in the ravelympics and I'd like to use the yarn I harvested from an old sweater. I have to pick a pattern pretty soon here if I'm going to swatch before the event kicks off, but I don't know what I'm in the mood to knit. What would my hands (and the yarn in question) like to work on in a mad dash of 17 days from start to finish?

Has it really been that long?

The days seem to slip by so quickly between blog posts! It's not like I'm short on things to blog about either; I started my first piece of lace work (now just a few repeats from being finished), I finished the neckline on that pesky practice sweater (it turned out just great once I stopped being a spaz about it), I made a pun into a hat, I ordered some yarn from Webbs, and I worked on the Never-Ending Afghan. I'm going to write about all of these things in detail right away. As soon as I can take some pictures. It's dark now.

50th post! Already?

I'll admit that the blogging has been slow around here lately, but this is due in large part to the fact that it's rather difficult to blog from one's cell phone (no matter how iAdvanced it may be).

Still, I've made it to 50 posts! I have finished objects to share and new things already on the needles! (No, mom, your afghan is not one of the finished objects. Simmer down, it's only June!)

I have finished my first* sock. One Red Sock. My brother immediately commented that it reminded him of the Red Sox's red socks, so I don't know if I'll bother making a second. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Yankees fan. I just resent that my little brother thinks it's ok to have a backup team. What is this nonsense! "But they're in a different league, and all the way across the country" he says. Like that's some sort of a defense. I am a True Blue Dodgers fan (I bleed BLUE during baseball season. No really.) Occasionally my mom will threaten to defect to the Padres or [shudder] Giants, but we don't take her seriously. Sorry mom.

My practice sweater is all but finished because I am having quite a bit of trouble with the neckline ribbing. First I picked up stitches like a maniac (some 120 when the pattern called for 78, I lost count) and it had a hilariously ruffled collar look. Not quite what I was looking for, really. So, on the second try I picked up exactly 78, made it through 3 or 4 rounds and realized I had dropped a stitch somewhere, messed up the ribbing twice, and had some unsightly gaps along the neck edge :-( So, I ask you, is there anything inherently wrong with leaving the sweater as is? I mean it may be a little uneven, but being completely honest with myself, this sweater wasn't intended to be worn, you know, outside of the house. Perhaps I've reached some sort of frustration quotient and just need to give it some time. My inner scientist is urgently reminding me that failed experiments are how we learn. [Side Note: It's platitudes like that one that make me want to plunk her in the head with an Erlenmeyer flask.]

And I've got a new sock project going! This one is flying off the needles, I've already got the first sock finished and I immediately cast on for the second sock (fearing that I would lose the inspiration). I found some Opal sock yarn to play with and practice on and I'm impressed with how easy it is to work with. It may not be the softest, squooshiest, or most lovely yarn I've ever worked with, but it's German; utility before frills, I get it. I'll bet that a little blocking and some fabric softener will work wonders. This colorway (don't ask me what it's called, I don't read German) struck me as particularly patriotic for some reason, I'm going to call these my Patriot socks. [Side Note: Not to abuse New England teams today or anything, but I'm most certainly NOT a Patriots fan either. It's the Steelers for me, thanks!]

$#(!*&% holes

After previous sock attempts were abandoned I began to feel some crafty-person remorse. I went and bought sock yarn (lovely red Cascade) and even itty bittier DPNs [Side Note: 'bittier' isn't a word, but I'm going to use it anyway. HAHA, actually the spell checker doesn't have a problem with it, but "itty" and "DPNs" it doesn't approve of. Go figure.] I vowed to try again, especially since socks are so portable and I'm driving myself up the wall with my practice sweater [Another Side Note: I finished the back of the sweater last night, forgoing my self-imposed break].

I picked the most generic sock pattern that I could find and cast on, worked down the leg, turned the heel in short row and realized that there are $#(!*$% holes along the short row. This was not supposed to happen! I used a much simplified method of short row that didn't involve all that befuddling yarn wrapping that I haven't developed the skills to accomplish yet. It worked out just fine and simplified my project immeasurably, but there are tiny spaces! ARGH!

Don't get me wrong, I can live with the holes. I live in a desert and socks are not necessary for more than perhaps 2 months of the year. It's just the idea that my first* (I'm not counting the discarded projects, Finished Objects only!) socks won't be *perfect* that bugs me. Scratch that, it's the idea that I followed the directions and played by the rules and it did work out that bugs me even more. If I don't know what went wrong, how am I supposed to fix it in the future? Grr.

In other news, I'm not sure where all of this angsty, self-reflective knit-blogging is coming from lately, but I'm sure it will subside soon. Also, blogging from one's iPhone isn't conducive to picture posting, sorry! If I can figure out how to send a picture AND the accompanying text together and have them appear as a single cohesive post the pictures will return.

Paranoid Sweater Phobia

I have the back of my practice sweater with me for some easy stockinette worsted weight knitting and it's been causing me all sorts of grief. I'll admit that I possibly have a Paranoid Sweater Phobia which is really the root of all my sweater knitting insecurities. I find myself compulsively holding up my knitting for size after every row and pestering people (Excuse me, does this look too long? Is is too soon to start the armhole? And so on.)

I am now of the opinion that knitting patterns should not include inch/cm measurements because they give me permission to bring along my seamstress style measuring tape and let the inner scientist have free range to obsess over sixteenths and millimeters. I probably look like one of those crazy architecture students* in labs full of foam board, measuring every conceivable angle over and over again: measure, scrutinize, measure, check pattern, measure, decide to knit another row, measure, decide that row has pushed us over the line, scrutinize removing row, measure, and so on.

I am also guilty of trying on the two completed sleeves and wearing them around to scrutinize. I'm quite glad that I didn't bring them with me because it has stopped me from compulsively trying them on every time I check the back piece for size (that's every row). The prevailing concerns I have right now are 1) the arms are too long because the raglan decreases at the top seem to come up higher than I think they should and 2) that the arm hole decreases started too soon, or maybe too late and the thing is too long.

It's time for a break.

*I use the term "crazy" to denote an extreme devotion to detail and quality that probably keeps buildings from falling down on my head, so it is a term of greatest respect and thanks.

Two Sleeves; usually necessary for a sweater.

The sleeves of my practice sweater are complete! They are even seamed, as per my seam-as-I-go edict. Although I didn't lay them out very carefully for the picture, they are exactly the same size and shape with lovely, even gauge. This "practice sweater" is turning out to be just what I needed to build my sweater confidence.

Now raglan seams are something I'm not familiar with, but after extensive internet searching I believe that it works the same as the mattress stitch, just along the diagonal sleeve line. Am I wrong? That step is still a front and a back away, so I won't worry about it for now.

So what else do I have hanging around on the needles? Let's see: that world record afghan, the tweed stitch dishcloth, part of my First Sock that's waiting to be ripped, and the Gryffindor pillow that still needs seams.